Carphone Warehouse in commission overhaul

Carphone Warehouse is looking to end commissions for its entire shop staff, starting off with all of its 800 store managers and London staff under a radical new pay scheme.

Store managers across the country and shop floor staff are expected to be assuaged with a slice of the store’s gross profit. Store staff will see a 50% increase in basic pay, while store managers will see an increase depending on the size of their store. These changes will kick in from October this year.

Killing commissions is the most significant change in a broad review of the pay scheme that looks to address store staff concerns of intense pressure to chase sales.

The new salary scheme will be extended to store staff outside London in January, taking it to a total retail workforce of between 6,000 and 7,000 salespeople.

One distinction will be that shop floor staff outside London will hold on to half their commission, but won’t get the share of the store’s profit at first. That will be changed to the London model in April pending a successful run of the scheme.

Carphone retail director, Steve Blan, told Mobile: ‘We will have managers earning as much in basic as they did in total last year – it’s great news for them.‘It will attract a different quality of person who doesn’t want to be on commission – managers can spend longer managing our stores and people can spend longer serving customers.’

‘We want to go with the DNA of our business of giving great service. It encourages people to spend more time with the customer and it encourages teamwork.’

One Carphone staffer outside London said: ‘Our pay will probably work out around a similar amount to what we get now. Having a better basic is helpful for getting a mortgage, but it's a real pain that we have to wait until next year for it.’